Everything has to be solved in one evening – how to get to the Latvian basketball team in the final tournament of the European Championship?

The Latvian national team has just finished the “bubble” of the European Championship qualification tournament in Sarajevo – 77:66 against Greece and 73:79 against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Under normal circumstances, these two games would have to be played away and there would be no surprise at the roaring southern stands. One victory was squeezed out of this “bubble”, which is not the worst case scenario. In the tournament table we are right where we were before these two games – the last ones. The Greeks and Bosnians with a balance of 3-1 have already secured a place in the European Championship qualification, while the Latvian and Bulgarian teams have won and will distribute the last third ticket to the final tunes. The game of both teams is scheduled for February 20, however, its venue is not yet known and this date is not set in stone. It is clear that both teams can solve everything in one evening – for Latvians a victory worth at least seven points will suffice to guarantee the third place, for Bulgarians – simply a victory. With another result (namely, the victory of the Latvian national team with a predominance of one to six points), the third place of group E will be decided in a distance round in the last round.

Good practice in clubs, good national team

After each loss, yeasts remain and so are the failures experienced on Sunday evening. In the comments of the fans, the biggest arrows of criticism are sent in the direction of the head coach Robert Štelmaher. Maybe we don’t have quite three million basketball coaches like in Lithuania, but our million will meet. Each has his own vision, at which point which player had to be placed on the field or, on the contrary, which to sit on the reserve bench. It must be agreed that the game against the Bosnians did not go from the middle of the first half and without significant changes it was played to the end. The main problems after the game were also named by Stelmacher – a failure in the fight for rebounds. The Bosnians scored 18 bombs under our basket and accumulated their lead with repeated chances, although overall their throw accuracy was worse. The second aspect – the tall and physically strong outer line in the height of the opponents “bites” our little ones, and every neutral ball was mostly the loot of the householders. There are many and varied versions of how to extend or strengthen the composition, the practical side of which will remain only at the level of theories.

Putting the two games together, it can be seen that those who have a high playing practice and a leading role in their clubs on a daily basis played more stably. Under the basket – Mārtiņš Meiers and Mareks Mejeris. Productive, useful, although both disappeared a bit against the Bosnians – 19 points from the opponent’s 20-year-old center Kenan Kamenias and four bombs under our basket (one of them in the penultimate minute when the hope of escape waned) are so much. Anyway, with Meieri Square, the Latvian national team scored eight points more than the Bosnians, while with Klāvs Čavars they got minus -16 in three minutes. Closer to the basket there was a lack of equivalent assistants, Kaspars Bērziņš could not help due to injury, but there were no other candidates on this list of Štelmahers.

Both games were great for Mārtiņš Laksa, hitting all throws in the basket for two games. He may have had to look for cooperation even more often at the end, because Laksa is directly dependent on the contribution of the team members – his bun is a litter from a static position. Aigars Šķēle played at his level, who has played a lot with Štelmaher and feels like a fish in water in his basketball. We definitely expected a brighter debut from Krister Zorika, who was actually the only pure leader of the match, but at the age of 22 it is not easy to jump into the big team right away. The direct responsibilities were dealt with, but as the throws did not go against the Greeks, they did not go to the end – only two hits in 16 attempts certainly did not increase confidence. Rihards Lomažas, who tried to pull the team behind him, did not miss them, but the lack of playing practice made him feel. Also, the fact that at the club Richard is mostly playing in the position of an attacking defender and leading the match is not his direct responsibility.

The question remains whether Ingus Jakovich, who regularly plays in the Italian championship, would bring other winds into the game, who could physically try to deal with a taller opponent or “cut oxygen” to the Bosnian-hired American John Roberson. Every day, Jakovich will train in sparingo with Tony Douglas, an American who has played more than 400 games in the NBA. A fresh experience that was not even tried. Also, Štelmahers did not trust Jānis Bērziņš, who could definitely extend the centimeters in the position of the third number and change the weight cups in the fight for the rebounds. In addition, Bērziņš is one of the few players who has everything in order at the club, both with the playing time and the contribution of statistics.

The landlord points to the weak points

Kārlis Muižnieks, the former head coach of the Latvian national team, watched the game against Bosnia and Herzegovina live on the podcast “Sporta boulevard” together with the former national team player Kristaps Valters and journalist Roberts Ūdris. Already during the match, Muižnieks admitted that there is too much stress in the activities of the Latvian national team and the game is quite uniform.

“The Bosnians were superior in terms of tactics. The things they prepared worked, while not ours. If we are in the lead, then all is well, there is a beautiful game. As soon as it’s on the knives or opponents are ahead, mistakes, nervousness, inaccurate throws begin. We need to be more confident, not that we have these players less skilled than our opponents. One lost game is not a tragedy, the global goal is to enter the final of the European Championship and everything is in our own hands. This time we saw the team’s weakest points – the fight for the rebounds and the game under the aggressive pressure of the opponents on the small players. To be a modern team that can win something in Europe, you need to be in a protective position for players of stature and athleticism. There is not much time until February and now there is homework – how to intensify these things, ”Muižnieks summed up this loss.

Will LBS make a Euroleague contribution?

The evening of the main battle is scheduled for February 20, 2021. It is very possible that the venue will be Riga, because the Latvian Basketball Union has timely expressed its desire to host the decisive mini-tournament of the qualification tournament. It is too early to judge the possible composition of the team. We also have quite a lot of variation for those players who are not busy in the NBA and Euroleague. Andrejs Gražulis and Artūrs Strautiņš from the Italian Championship, Žanis Peiners and Artūrs Žagars have recovered – these are just some of the possible player options. The Covid-19 pandemic can and probably will make its adjustments. The run-up to February will be a good test for the current management of LBS and its Secretary General Kaspars Cyprus, who has taken on the day-to-day position of manager of the liquidated new unit. If the predecessor of Cyprus Edgars Šneps was able to gather an almost optimal line-up with the players of the Euroleague in the World Cup qualifier tournament in Montenegro, then we expect no less from Cyprus. The calendar of games in both tournaments is quite grateful – February 20 falls between the two rounds of the Euroleague. Jānis Timma, Dairis Bertāns (both “Khimki”), Artūrs Kurucs (“Baskonia”) and Rolands Šmits (“Barcelona”) play on February 18, Jānis Strēlnieks (“CSKA”) and Rihards Lomažs (“Asvel”) – a day later . We will definitely be waiting for someone to help the national team, but all basketball fans are waiting for the return of the Latvian national team in one of the big basketball forums.